Jaycee Dugard’s Kidnapper: Insane or Master Manipulator?

Phillip Garrido’s lawyer has filed a motion that claims her client — who is accused of kidnapping the California teen and imprisoning her for 18 years — is mentally ill, and potentially incapable of standing trial.

-The Betty Editors

In a move that has put a chill through the hearts of those seeking justice for Jaycee Dugard, Phillip Garrido’s lawyer filed a 44-page motion yesterday that appears to be the beginning of an insanity defense in the case against Garrido and his wife, who are accused of kidnapping, imprisoning and sexually enslaving Jaycee for 18 years.

Prosecutors call Garrido a “master manipulator,” but his attorney, Susan Gellman, says the District Attorney has failed to see the obvious: that Garrido has a serious mental illness.

“Phillip Garrido has been hearing voices of angels for years,” Gellman said. To further support her claims that Garrido is insane, the motion includes pages and pages of Garrido’s ramblings — on topics ranging from masturbation and marital sex to his invention of a “headphone amplification system” that enables others to witness the “phenomena” of him listening to angels.

Also included is an excerpt from his manifesto, entitled “Origin of Schizophrenia Revealed,” which Garrido, 58, shopped to various law enforcement agencies — including the FBI — calling attention to himself that would ultimately lead to his arrest. “These are the acts of someone suffering from a serious mental illness,” his lawyer argued.

Prosecutors say Phillip and Nancy Garrido abducted 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard outside her South Lake Tahoe, Calif., home on June 10, 1991 and held her captive as their sex slave for the next 18 years, during which time she bore two of her captor’s children and was forced to live in a hidden backyard tented complex. She was identified in August 2009 and is now living with her children in an undisclosed location. Phillip and Nancy Garrido pled not guilty to all charges and are awaiting trial in El Dorado county prison.

He’s obviously insane, BUT he also clearly knew he was doing something wrong, since he hid Jaycee and their daughters away and taught them to lie to the police. He’s a nutjob, sure, but a highly competent one who should have been in prison years ago.

If it helps, a successful plea of insanity isn’t usually much better than being convicted (despite what happens in movies). Since there is no set sentence people often have to spend longer in the hospital than they would have in jail, and many never get to leave.

NOT GUILTY?! Are you kidding me? I think if he were really mentally ill, he wouldn’t have succeeded in the execution of all the sick things he did. He’s definitely ill but not stupid and “unaware” of what he was doing.